Clubs EP recording Session: 1/7/2009

I show up at the Diamond Factory recording studio around 7 pm. It is the same place where San Marcos/Austin band Newlywed recorded their soon to be released Fear Country ep and from what I hear on entering, Clubs’ ep is getting the same treatment.

The studio is located in North Austin in an industrial park off of 183. Apparently there is a whorehouse nearby and I am told that I can get an expert handjob for 35$ or so. The front of the converted office suite is dark when I show up and even though I’ve been there before I am momentarily uncertain that I am in the right place. There are no signs of life other than an old couch, vcr/tv, and lots of empty candy wrappers in the front room, but I hear the faint sounds of a muffled guitar coming through the walls and I follow them into the main recording room. It is large and mostly empty except for an old, out of tune piano in the corner, a microwave, some soundproofing material mounted on the walls, and an Orange half-stack with three mics in front of it. The mics are running into the side room where Travis, the producer, is sitting with Clubs’ guitarists Alexander Beggins and John Nichols. I am told that bassist Foster Farmer and drummer Fran Aguera are already done with their parts. Nichols is recording a lead part for one of his songs and I sit down to listen. The song sounds surprisingly heavy and the unfinished track is already building into a multi-layered experience. Nichols is recording on a black SG, for a slightly thicker tone than his Telecaster ---which he uses live--- would produce. When the lead guitar part is finished Beggins takes the guitar and records a couple of brief overdubs of rhythm parts. They finish the song and even the un-mastered, vocal-less, results are intimidating. I stay for a bit longer and watch the band finish up the few remaining guitar parts, use Nichols’ phone to look up the whores-next-door, find that they are surprisingly attractive, do a half-hearted mental search for sleigh-bells, try some gross energy spray, then leave.

I’ll have to be content to wait until the as of now untitled ep is released to hear what the vocals/finished product sounds like, but in the meantime Clubs are playing the Newlywed cd release show on January 17th with Newlywed, Earth Eater, Cactus Peach, (and possibly a surprise guest??)

-S.B.